Print & prejudice: Ethel Kirkpatrick at the V&A

 

The V&A South Kensington cannot have heard about the Ethel Kirkpatrick Society (and perhaps you haven't either). To curators at large institutions like the V&A, artists like Kirkpatrick have been mislaid. But we can let that pass. She was included in a small exhibition of women printmakers at the V&A which closed on 11th May this year. If you missed it (as I did) you can see some of the highlights on the website under  'Print and prejudice: women printmakers 1730 to 1930' where you will find the best reproductions of her work I have yet seen, including Bowl of marigolds from 1922 and Mount's Bay (1914). 

The V&A have done her some justice but the scholarship is poor. Kirkpatrick is all over Modern Printmakers and they only had to get in touch to find out the dates.  The research Alan Guest did in the 1980s on Kirkpatrick (when she really was being rediscovered) was as meticulous as the museum's photography. Getting dates and titles right are basic to appreciation of an artist's achievement. Trying to suggest Kirkpatrick was in some way hard done by is not.

Alan was fortunate enough to own a proof of Bowl of marigolds and believed it was a linocut. He could be right. The V&A themselves have a series of proofs of Brixham trawlers (1924) pulled by Kirkpatrick and donated by her in 1924. (They are now available online but seeing is believing). The way she achieved her subtle depth of colour by canny under-printing is an education in itself. There are also progressive proofs donated by William Giles and John Hall Thorpe at the same time and for the same reason. Giles had been both a student and a teacher at the Royal College (next door to the museum) and knew how useful such examples could be.